Neighbors loft conversion, party wall.

Doozergirl

Rosa_Damascena said:

Phil4432 said:

I had a chat with a Party Wall surveyor recently.

He said that the work is quite small, and given that there will only be one support in the party wall, he sees no need for the expense of a party wall agreement.  In his opinion, the party wall agreement is for larger scale projects.

He advised that the best thing for me to do, would be to take lots of photos.

The surveyor could have insisted that I need to press for a survey to be done, but he didn't.  Also had a chat with a younger surveyor, he gave me a scare story followed by a breakdown of his fees.

Either way is a chance really.  At this point, I'm going to take the initial surveyors advice.

The cost of this survey is your neighbour's responsibility, not yours!!

That doesn't mean that a surveyor is needed. 

They don't check any of the actual work and it's the structural engineer's job to specify.  

Putting one steel into a party wall is a small job that an agreement can be drawn up and signed between neighbours.  What is important is the structural engineer's involvement, building control
sign off and yes, some photos of prior condition would be helpful for both parties.  

Phil4432

So I've had a good look at the party wall in the loft over the weekend.  The neighbors roof has been stripped of tiles and is covered by scaffolding, temporary roof and tarp. 

I checked the tiles on the inside of our loft carefully, none have been removed and there was no ingress during rain.

Lots of pictures taken. 

The party wall in the loft is in need of repair, there are some small holes and in one place a brick can be completely removed to reveal the outside space beyond.  I was aware of this issue before, as it was highlighted on the survey when we bought the house.

The state of the party wall must be obvious to the builder, and probably the best thing to protect his client would be to advise them to have a party wall survey done, to protect them from unscrupulous claims from myself (not my style).
   However, he probably wants to get the job done, get paid and get out.

I'll write to him shortly, ask him what he intends to do with the part wall on his clients side, which is obviously in need of repair.  Will also ask how he plans to make the indenture in the party wall, for the steel to sit.  If it's to be done by drilling, I have to consider the stress to my side of the party wall, that is in need of repair.

Had a chance to measure the thickness of the party wall, its basically two bricks thick, so 9 inches.  He's written that he'll be cutting in by 4 inches on his clients side.  So that's reassuring at least.

Am also considering asbestos, only possible areas of asbestos I can think of would be the old loft insulation and AIB soffits.  There is some dust on the shelf of the front bay window, and will inevitably be more as work progresses.  Doubt they'd grind up AIB or sprinkle loft insulation everywhere, but with the nightmare builders I've seen it's best to be cautious.